January Proves Luckless in Peterson Case

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, January 24, 2003

In her typical American hometown, she was the girl next door, the high school cheerleader and softball player who went off to college and returned years later in a storybook romance and marriage.

Now Laci Rocha Peterson, 27, is that familiar expectant mother and extrovert who smiles from thousands of fliers, posters and television screens around the world.

More than a month after the substitute school teacher's Christmas Eve disappearance, a multitude of bizarre twists have fueled relentless speculation and innuendo inside a superheated media frenzy.

But none _ including Friday's surprise appearance of a woman alleging she had an affair with Laci Peterson's husband, Scott _ have produced answers or arrests.

Asked late Friday if his department had gotten closer to solving the case, Modesto police Chief Roy Wasden said, "I don't believe there's a significant change we can articulate. Are we closer? I hope so."

For family, friends and a police department that has already spent more than $100,000 on overtime pay to search and investigate, January is proving luckless and cruel. Meanwhile an emotionally charged date is approaching: the Feb. 10 due date for Laci Peterson's baby boy _ already given the name Conner.

"I miss listening to the excitement in her voice when she talks to me about her baby," said Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha.

Rocha, making an exhausted, tearful media appearance Friday with her other daughter and son, begged for an anonymous tip to police and for Scott Peterson to tell investigators everything he knows.

"There are no words that can possibly describe the ache in my heart or the emptiness in my life," she said.

Laci Peterson vanished hours before she had planned to spend Christmas Eve with her husband and family members in Modesto. Scott Peterson, 30, told police he last saw her about 9:30 a.m. when he left to go fishing for the day at Berkeley Marina. He said she was taking the family dog, McKenzie, for a walk at nearby La Loma Park.

Laci Peterson's family and friends initially stood by Scott Peterson, but his story quickly attracted suspicion and scrutiny.

Tight-lipped police, who impounded Scott Peterson's pickup truck and boat, say they do not consider him a suspect but have not ruled him out. The specialty fertilizer salesman was reportedly in San Diego this weekend to pass out missing person fliers.

Laci Peterson's relatives publicly withdrew their support for her husband Friday. Hours later, Amber Frey stood shaken before dozens of cameras and reporters to confess to having a "romantic relationship" with the man, whom she met in November.

Scott Peterson has denied having an affair.

Frey, 28, of nearby Fresno, expressed sorrow for "the pain this has caused" and said Scott Peterson told her he was single. The single mother of a 23-month-old child said she called Modesto police six days after Laci Peterson's disappearance, when she learned Scott Peterson was the missing woman's husband.

Police said they have ruled Frey out as a suspect.

Frey's story was only the latest in a series of strange turns in the case _ many of which have led to dead ends.

Police had to hurriedly show photos of Scott Peterson with Frey to Laci Peterson's family to keep them from hearing about the alleged affair first in The National Enquirer.

Headlines flared earlier this month when police said they were looking at Scott Peterson in connection with a student's 1996 disappearance in San Luis Obispo. The next day they said there was no connection.

Then burglars broke into the Petersons' house last week, making a baffling case even stranger. Neither Scott Peterson nor police said what the burglars took.

Modesto police Detective Doug Ridenour says suspects were identified but not arrested, and that the break-in appears to be unrelated to the disappearance.

Modesto has become accustomed to the rumors and media frenzy a high-profile disappearance can generate.

The Central California city of 200,000 people was the hometown of Chandra Levy, a Washington, D.C., intern who was found dead months after her 2001 disappearance. It also served as the 1999 command center for three women missing in Yosemite National Park and found murdered by a motel handyman a month later.

Laci Peterson's friends and family just hope all the attention helps them find the answers they need.

"We're just trying to get by every day," said Stacy Boyers, 27, a friend of Laci Peterson's since third grade. "We want to know what happened to Laci and who did this. We just want to know."